Strike Disrupts Twa Service

Attendants` Walkout Gets Machinists` Sympathy

March 08, 1986|By Gary Washburn, Transportation writer.

Striking flight attendants forced Trans World Airlines to cancel half of its flights in the United States and Europe on Friday and hundreds of union mechanics were reported to be honoring the attendants` picket lines, raising questions about TWA`s ability to restore full service as quickly as planned.

The walkout began early Friday.

Airline officials said they want to return to a full schedule of 612 daily flights within a week, using newly hired attendants. But a federal judge in Kansas City refused an emergency request by the company to order members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) to cross the picket lines.

A TWA spokesman said a ruling is expected Monday on an appeal of the decision.

TWA maintained operations Friday to all 63 U.S. cities it serves except Newark, N.J., and to all 23 foreign airports on its schedule except Athens, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv, and Barcelona, Spain.

However, the level of service was down, in some cases sharply.

Fourteen of 20 scheduled departures from Chicago`s O`Hare International Airport were canceled, as were 12 of 14 flights from La Guardia Airport in New York and 15 of 53 from New York`s Kennedy International.

In St. Louis, the airline`s major east-west hub, flights were reduced to 50 percent of normal.

Carl Icahn, TWA chairman, said at a Washington press conference that he hopes the airline will be able to restore full service in four or five days. He estimated the cost of a five-day strike at $45 million to $50 million.

If a normal schedule is not resumed in two weeks, the cost could run as high as $75 million, Icahn said.

There were reports of a ``very good showing`` of TWA mechanics crossing the flight attendants` picket line in Los Angeles, said Rudy Monks, an airline spokesman. But smaller numbers worked in such places as New York`s Kennedy, St. Louis and Kansas City, TWA`s maintenance base, he said.

Ken Weber, treasurer of IAM Local 1650 in Kansas City, said it appeared that virtually all of the local`s 3,500 members refused to cross picket lines on Friday.

But an observer from another airline said that large maintenance crews are needed only for such things as major aircraft overhauls and inspections, which are infrequent.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it will pay especially close attention to TWA during the strike.

``That is normal procedure,`` said John Swank, a spokesman in the FAA`s Kansas City regional office, which has primary responsibility for overseeing TWA. ``Our region sent out Teletype messages to all other regions where TWA has flights . . . requiring increased surveillance.``

The FAA will increase its usual number of inspections to ensure that working flight attendants are properly qualified, he said, and ``maintenance requirements in effect before the strike remain in effect. Our people will be making sure those requirements are met.``

Other airlines honored TWA tickets for travelers whose flights had been canceled. A spokesman for Ozark Airlines, TWA`s biggest competitor in St. Louis, said that ``in virtually every case, we`ve been able to get passengers to their destinations.`` United Airlines served some TWA customers, but the increase in business ``has not been dramatic,`` a spokesman said.

The strike was called by the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants, which represents 5,700 TWA employees.

Marathon talks conducted since last Saturday under the auspices of the National Mediation Board collapsed when the two sides failed to agree on wage cuts and work rules.

Both the union and the airline said that no further bargaining sessions were scheduled.

``We intend to close this place down,`` said Vicki Frankovich, union president.

``We plan to fly the airline,`` Icahn said. ``We intend to stay in business.`` A total of 1,500 new flight attendants have been hired, he said.

Monks said that newly hired attendants who started work Friday would be joined by reinforcements now in training. Management personnel and employees who normally work other positions were filling attendants` spots in the early hours of the strike.

Members of TWA`s pilots` union, who agreed to a no-strike contract in January, reportedly were not honoring the picket lines.

Frankovich speculated in an interview on the ``CBS Morning News`` that the newly hired flight attendants could not keep the airline operating.